NOVEL NEXT 217 – A Town in Turmoil
“What… happened here?” Alissa couldn’t help but mutter when she saw the state the town of Eastcliff was in by the time the expedition force reached it.
Eastcliff was in shambles, some buildings still showing burn marks, while others were razed to the ground. Some other places showed clear signs of having been broken into, while both the local temple and the mayor’s mansion were vandalized and pretty much destroyed, as were the businesses owned by several mercantile houses in town.
Not even the people were spared. Several dead bodies hung from nearby trees, and from the way Mother Magdalene frowned, some of them seemed to belong to the local temple’s priests and guards. Given the location of the other bodies, they probably belonged to the mayor and the merchants whose places had been ransacked.
As for the townspeople, everyone pretty much shirked away when they spotted the army detachment’s arrival, the people locking themselves inside their homes, with only some peeking out of the windows. From the glares she could feel, Alissa could tell that the locals had no good feeling to spare for the army, as she could feel the suspicion and hostility from their eyes.
Not everyone had gone to the town, only a group of mostly fourth tiers and around a hundred or so third tiers with the excess supplies on their backs, since those could catch up to the rest faster after they were done handing over the supplies. The larger portion of the expedition continued on their way to the defensive positions at the front lines further south.
“I have a few guesses, but it’s better to make certain in times like these. Valis, take five with you and find out exactly what happened. You can drop the supplies here for now,” said Sir DelVillar as he commanded one of the fourth tiers he brought from Fort Abernal. The fourth tier woman in question nodded and picked five of the third tiers with her before they went further into the city to investigate. “Let’s offload the supplies here for the time being and take a break until she returns.”
In the end, it had not taken too long – maybe thirty minutes or so – before the woman in question returned with a rather awkward look on her face and whispered her reports to Sir DelVillar. From the way the old knight’s expression twitched for a moment, Alissa guessed that the contents of the report must have been a rather unpleasant one to hear.
“Bloody hells in a handbasket,” cursed Sir DelVillar rather vehemently after he listened to the report in its entirety. From the way he frowned Alissa could tell immediately that the situation was likely an unpleasant one, or at least one that the old knight found distasteful. “This sort of shit is why I hate working with short-sighted fools. They always ruin the situation when you want it to happen the least.”
“What actually happened?” asked Mother Magdalene, this time with a rather curious tone of voice. The old woman had never seen Sir DelVillar curse vehemently like that before, which likely attracted her attention. She was likely also curious as to what led to the murder of the local clergy, to the point that some of the bodies were downright desecrated. “Can you brief us on the actual situation here?”
“What happened was the gods-damned brainless fool of a mayor and your local priests working together with the merchants to stock up food to sell at a sky high price rather than distribute them amongst the starving people and refugees,” stated Sir DelVillar without bothering to hide his disgust at the situation. “Doing that while the town is crowded by hungry refugees… that was just a literal pile of kindling waiting for a spark to ignite the whole mess.”
“And what triggered… whatever happened here, then, Sir?” asked Alissa with a more neutral tone. Since the situation involved both the local authority and the local clergy, it was probably difficult for Sir DelVillar or Mother Magdalene to remain unbiased, so as a somewhat unrelated third party, she figured it might be wise to remind them of her and her party’s presence.
“It’s quite an unbelievable story, but Valis corroborated it with multiple witnesses. Apparently someone broke into the temple’s storehouse and robbed their stockpile of food before distributing it to the starving people all over the town four nights ago,” said Sir DelVillar. “Take a guess how the local clergy reacted to that the next morning?”
“Considering that they’re all strung up on the trees, the worthless idiots must have tried to do something stupid like confiscating the food back from the already starving people,” said Mother Magdalene while covering her face with one calloused hand. “I know that there have been plenty of bad eggs in the temple lately, but to fail their duty to such an extent and then to go even further with their greed and corruption… If they hadn’t already been hung to death days ago by the Gods I’d love to personally hang them myself.”
From the emotional way the old woman said it, Alissa guessed that she was completely serious with that sentiment. She really would have hung the local clergy in person if she had caught them in the act, but
Unfortunately they were late by several days and the townspeople had clearly already taken the matter into their own hands in the meantime.
“About right. Because of their heavy-handed methods in trying to confiscate the stolen food back from the starving people, the city descended into a riot three days ago. Apparently during the rioting the locals also found out that the mayor and the merchants had been stockpiling large amounts of food supplies as well, so they strung them up too,” continued Sir DelVillar with a shrug. “Can’t blame them, really. Those merchants had been fishing in muddled waters by selling food at exorbitant prices. All while hundreds of people already starved to death.”
“Then what will we be doing, Sir?” asked Alissa once more.
“Originally we had planned to just drop off some food supplies and let the local authorities deal with the distribution. From the looks of it, though, there’s no more of said local authorities to do that. Things here would normally get ugly under normal circumstances, when there’s time to investigate properly and find out just who instigated the crowd, but under these conditions, chances are good that by the time we have the leeway to investigate, the traces would have long gone cold,” said the Old Knight with a sigh. “Right now, I think most of the townspeople are still sensitive to us soldiers and clergy, judging from their reaction, so it wouldn’t be the best idea for us to stay and distribute the supplies either.”
“In that case, can I help, Sir?” volunteered Alissa. “I’m technically neither part of the army nor the clergy, and I’m pretty sure I can take care of myself,” she added. “Once I’m done distributing the supplies and setting up some semblance of order here, I can catch up at the frontline? Shouldn’t take me more than a day to cover the distance if I go all-out.”
“That’s not a bad suggestion, honestly,” stated Mother Magdalene with a thoughtful look on her face. “While I would like to redeem the clergy’s face after the folly the idiots here committed, that can wait for later. Right now these people need both food and order to get some semblance of normalcy back into their lives. One of the [Heroes] helping out might well wake enough of them up from their frenzy and hostility to do just that.”
“Since Miss O’Connor volunteered, I have nothing to say against it. I’ll leave twenty of the fastest amongst the third tier to help you out,” said Sir DelVillar. “We should be able to hold out pretty well at the frontline, but if you can, please do try to catch up in a week or so at most,” he added. “If you’re fine with that we’ll leave the supplies here and let you handle the situation as you see fit.”
“That’s fine with me, Sir,” replied Alissa with a nod. She figured a single additional fourth tier wouldn’t have that much effect at the frontline anyway, and she couldn’t exactly turn a blind eye to the mess that was Eastcliff’s current situation. Maybe if she had never visited the place, she could do so, but she was present there, and there was no way for her to just shelve it at the back of her head.
“Do take some caution, Miss O’Connor,” said Mother Magdalene while most of the group other than the people left behind to help Alissa unloaded the supplies on their back and prepared to leave. “Whoever robbed the temple clearly knew what they were doing and the effect it would have, since it would be impossible to hide the passage of such a large amount of food supplies. Someone incited this riot, probably for good cause, sure, but I would advise remaining vigilant all the same.”
“I had the same suspicions myself, Mother Magdalene,” replied Alissa with a nod. What the old woman said was true, and if someone was capable of robbing the temple’s storehouse clean like that, they would likely also be able to easily discern the personalities of the people in charge of the temple. As such, they definitely knew that a riot was very likely the outcome of their ‘charitable’ actions.
Whether that someone was a provocateur looking to further muddy the waters or some misguided people with noble intentions, Alissa had no idea, but it was true that depending on which sort of individual she faced, they might prove to be troublesome. It was not that she had anything to fear from the local civilians. Push comes to shove, she was confident in being able to at least escape unharmed with the soldiers left to her without hurting anyone. Even so, the town and its people might not be able to handle the chaotic situation for long.
The order in Eastcliff had gone down the drain, pretty much, with the locals and refugees practically wandering around in groups. A good part of the food supplies they liberated from the temple or the merchants had been eaten voraciously on that first day of rioting, to the point that some people died from eating too much when their stomachs had been starving for a long while.
Those who lived on showed more caution, and rationed the remaining food supplies, but the fact remained that there wasn’t enough for everyone for a longer period of time. The people in Eastcliff had maybe food for a week left after the rioting ended, and tension began to build up because of that, as everyone knew that once all the food was eaten, there would be no more. The only way to get more would be to snatch it from others, but the townspeople had yet to fall that low before Alissa arrived.
It naturally did not escape the townspeople’s notice that she brought a large amount of food supplies with her, enough to keep the town going for a couple weeks to a month more, if rationed properly. Alissa directed the twenty soldiers left to her to first store the food inside several empty homes near the center of the town, then she stood in the center of the town square and loudly proclaimed her identity to the townspeople in hearing range.
She promised them that she had come to help and would not pursue what they had done before her arrival, and that she had brought more food supplies for the whole town. All they needed to do was to restore some semblance of order to the town and line up for their rations. Some locals had greedy thoughts upon noticing her arrival, but most were like people who had been awakened from their reverie as they realized what they had been doing over the past few days.
